Today's News

SATURDAY SÁBADO
• Second Annual Sobriety Ball, 7 p.m. to midnight on Saturday, Dec. 28 at El Burro Enterprise. Los Tropicales will provide musical entertainment for the evening. Donations are being sought for the event. To donate or for more information, call 505-617-5846 or 425-2687.

Submit your calendar items and notices to mlopez@lasvegasoptic.com
• The San Miguel Unit of the American Red Cross helps with any natural disaster and house fires. Persons interested in becoming a member are asked to contact Contact Connie Chavez at 425-6224. Meetings are held every third Thursday at 6 p.m. in Faith Hall.
• The San Miguel County DWI Safe-Ride-Home Service operates from 8 p.m. to 2 a.m. on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Rides are provided in the Las Vegas area from liquor establishments to your home, for service call 429-0336.

New Mexico Highlands University anthropology professor Warren Lail published groundbreaking research that is the first to find evidence of human occupation of the Cimarron Archaeological District of northeastern New Mexico between A.D. 1415 and 1495.

Lail used cutting-edge luminescent dating technology to analyze soil compacted in an ancient human cranium, providing key information that allows the remains to be repatriated with the Southern Ute Indian tribe.

ALBUQUERQUE — Al Solis, Roswell’s former police chief and the state’s former interim secretary of the Department of Corrections, died Monday, Roswell officials confirmed. He was 65 and had been battling cancer.

Roswell City Manager Larry Fry said officials were informed that Solis died in Las Cruces. “He was certainly a man of integrity and had a long, distinguished career in law enforcement,” Fry said.

SANTA FE — A Santa Fe hospital has been ordered to pay $1 million to a woman who stopped breathing and nearly died while being treated there in May 2010.
The Santa Fe New Mexican reports that a jury Monday awarded Zelda Jiron $250,000 in compensatory damages and $750,000 in punitive damages in her lawsuit against Christus St. Vincent Regional Medical Center.

Last Wednesday, the Mora Valley Baptist Church presented its annual Christmas story. The program began with the lighting of candles by the youth.

The play began with the prediction of John the Baptist’s birth and Jesus birth by Gabriel. Then the visit of the angel to Mary, her visit with Elizabeth, John’s birth, It continued with all the details before the birth of Jesus and the action after the birth as the holy family flees to Egypt. It ended when the family finally returned to Nazareth.

This happy holiday time always translates into fun ‘way out here in the mountains. My friends, many in my age group, still send hand-written messages on Christmas cards. Yes, the list gets shorter every year, sadly. Some of the old Gascon Gang have now weathered their last storm. And some even read this column on the internet. I am flattered!